So I’m in the Boston area this weekend, and needed to get into the city itself last evening for an event. I’ve lived in Boston and know full well the traffic-and-parking nightmare that is Saturday night there, so I decided to take the T. (more…)

I’ve been engaged in a couple of lively Facebook conversations about the current goings-on in Wisconsin, and a recurring theme has cropped up: “I’m tired of paying for other people’s benefits when they are better than my own.” While this resentment is understandable, I have a couple of philosophical problems with it. (more…)

Over on Urbanophile the far-more-knowledgeable-than-I-am Aaron Renn muses on why city governments talk so much about innovation and yet are consistently so terrible at it. By way of explanation he highlights what he calls “the tyranny of the org chart” and the understandable instinct to play things safe, both of which I think are key but are partial snapshots of a larger picture. (Go read the whole thing; it’s worth it.) (more…)